History Literature / Sunshine

* LightIsGood: Or at least used by the protagonist to destroy an unquestionably evil vampire.

* FakingAmnesia: Sunshine pretends she has PTSD that made her forget or block her memories after escaping from being held captive by vampires. Mostly she ''does'' have PTSD but she hadn't forgotten anything, she just didn't want to talk about it or explain A) that she saved a vampire and B) ''how'' she saved a vampire.

* YourCheatingHeart: Sunshine has a boyfriend the entire book. Still doesn't keep her from [[spoiler: having some pretty intense moments, including something that could only count as foreplay, with Con. It doesn't go anywhere definite; though Sunshine makes it clear that she's attracted to him, Con is resistant for reasons that, as usual, he isn't interested in explaining, aide from feeling inducing "intensity" to an already-fraught relationship would be a bad idea.]]

* MindProbe: The goddess of pain tries it on Sunshine to try and compel her to tell the truth, who refers to it as "trolling", detects it and resists. It is illegal to do this without due cause or consent, and anything found cannot be used in court, but as Sunshine notes, once you know something you can't un-know it.

* NeverWasThisUniverse: Simply very similar. Among other things, America appears to be called Libertalia and England is Albion. The American Revolution is referred to as the Liberty Wars

* YourCheatingHeart: Sunshine has a boyfriend the entire book. Still doesn't keep her from [[spoiler: having some pretty intense moments, including something that could only count as foreplay, with Con. It doesn't go anywhere definite; though Sunshine makes it clear that she's attracted to him, Con is resistant for reasons that, as usual, he isn't interested in explaining.]]

''Sunshine'' is a novel by Creator/RobinMcKinley. It tells the story of Rae "Sunshine" Seddon, a young woman who works in her stepfather's coffeehouse as a baker. The novel is set in a [[CrapsackWorld unpleasant]] [[NeverWasThisUniverse alternate reality]] about ten years after the Voodoo Wars. These wars left the world in rather a mess--"bad spots", effectively magical toxic waste spills, get mentioned several times.

Unfortunately for the vampires, Sunshine's father was a sorcerer, and her grandmother taught her to use her heritage to transmute, which lets her make a key for her shackles. ''Really'' unfortunately for the vampires, Sunshine's world has [[ElementalPowers elemental magic]], and [[MeaningfulName Sunshine]]'s element is, well...such that even though she escapes during the day, she can take Constantine with her.

* NeverWasThisUniverse: Simply very similar.

* NoNameGiven: The goddess of pain is only ever referred to as that.

* MuggingTheMonster: Lampshaded by Con when Sunshine tells him her real name. If he had drunk her blood, as Bo had intended while they were chained side by side, he would have become powerful enough to wipe the latter out in a few days. Sunshine by herself proves to be quite a formidable threat once she and Con escape.

* ((Telepathy}}: The goddess of pain tries it on Sunshine to try and compel her to tell the truth, who refers to it as "trolling", detects it and resists. It is illegal to do this without due cause or consent, and anything found cannot be used in court, but as Sunshine notes, once you know something you can't un-know it.

* ObstructiveBureaucrat: "The goddess of pain," who, ironically enough, is ''completely correct'' in suspecting Con to be a vampire.

* YouthIsWastedOnTheDumb: Doing things like trying to spot vampires, for instance.

* AfterActionPatchUp: Constantine, after the escape.

* AllierativeName: Rae "Sunshine" Seddon. Her mother is Sadie Seddon.

** Being partially demonic is more of a curse than a gift due to FantasticRacism. Sunshine mentions how a star athlete she knew lost all of his scholarships and trophies after he found out he had demonic heritage. Also, the SOF is more likely to forcibly recruit you because it's "rotten" with partblood demons.

* DisappearedDad: Sunshine's father, Onyx Blaise, mysteriously disappeared many years ago. No one knows what happened to him. No, we don't find out, either.
* ElementalPowers: Magic-users are described as usually having a particular elemental affinity which gives them resistance to things that element opposes or neutralizes. The most common ones are (of course) fire, air, water, and earth, but metal and wood are also known possibilities. The title character's is, appropriately, sunlight, which is an unusual affinity falling somewhere between air and fire and "something else".

* FakingAmnesia: Sunshine pretends she has PTSD that made her forget or block her memories after escaping from being held captive by vampires. Mostly she ''does'' have PTSD but she hadn't forgotten anything, she just didn't want to talk about it or explain A) why she saved a vampire and B) ''how'' she saved a vampire.

* IGaveMyWord: She worries when Constantine does not show up on time. He had said he would. [[spoiler:She's right to worry.]]

* LadyInRed: Sunshine is dressed in a blood-red dress before being given to Constantine. This could be metaphorical as red = availability and she is available to be eaten. Since vampire blood taking has long been seen as a metaphor for sex...
* TheLastDance: When Sunshine realizes she has two days before she has to face Bo and end the conflict, she does this. Her list is as follows: eat an entire pan of Bitter Chocolate Death (which she can't finish), buy several dozen roses, and not tell anyone that she's going on a SuicideMission.

* LockedOutOfTheLoop: ''Everyone'' except Sunshine knows about her family heritage. While technically she does know, it's been a very long time and she's deliberately forgotten most of it.

* MustBeInvited: Here's an interesting little wrinkle to the traditional rules, where are also in play: a vampire can't do much to a human that the human doesn't ''want'' them to do. Unfortunately, vampires have such powerful mental domination abilities that they can indeed convince a human to be eaten by vampires. (Sunshine muses a little on if this applies to [[PowerPerversionPotential other forms of invitation]]. It turns out it does, but vampires don't bother having sex with humans.)

* OurVampiresAreDifferent: Vampires are much less human in ''Sunshine'' than in most works, and they get progressively less human as they age. This process apparently is much slower for FriendlyNeighborhoodVampires than for the other kind: Constantine can deal with twilight and moonlight, and most vampires his age can't.

* ThroughHisStomach: In the generalized form.

* UnreliableExpositor: Some of Sunshine's {{Expospeak}} is later revealed to be mistaken; see e.g. WizardsLiveLonger below. Sometimes she even contradicts herself without external help, e.g. first she says that by handling magic without a license she committed the kind of crime that SOF really hates, but a bit later she tells us that the licensing thing was piffle (she may simply have meant ''in comparison''). Several times she also [[DiscussedTrope discusses]] the fact that not everything she thought she knew is turning out to be true ("Where did sorcerers get their tattoos? Maybe I didn't know anything anymore.")

* YouthIsWastedOnTheDumb: Trying to spot vampires, for instance.

* UnreliableExpositor: Some of Sunshine's {{Expospeak}} is later revealed to be mistaken; see e.g. WizardsLiveLonger below. Sometimes she even contradicts herself without external help, e.g. first she says that by handling magic without a license she committed the kind of crime that SOF really hates, but a bit later she tells us that the licensing thing was piffle. Several times she also [[DiscussedTrope discusses]] the fact that not everything she thought she knew is turning out to be true ("Where did sorcerers get their tattoos? Maybe I didn't know anything anymore.")

* AdultFear:
** Sunshine's mother has this reaction when her daughter goes missing for several days, turns up with bleeding feet and a huge cut on her breast, and claims she doesn't remember what happened to her. She was also against the idea of her daughter moving out when living at home would be more convenient and safer.
** Vampires generally have no qualms about knocking out their prey, regardless of age, and carrying them away to feed on later. Sunshine saves a teenage girl from suffering this fate.
** Also Sunshine's mother suffered this in the past after leaving her husband with no money, and no support from his family or hers. She then had to contend with a sick child, since the apartment they were living in was a basement, and Sunshine needs sunlight to be healthy.

* AntiHero: Constantine. He's a vampire, with all that implies, but he doesn't do anything particularly evil in the book; other, much nastier vampires are out to destroy him implicitly because he's unusually nice. He's still off-putting, reticent, prideful, extremely violent (in a pinch and against other vampires) and takes quite a while to become comfortable with Sunshine -- almost as long as it takes for her to become comfortable with him.

** Con's healing rite heals the poisoned cut on Sunshine's chest, so she won't die; she even gains some of his abilities. However, it involved drinking a doe's blood (with Con as the vessel) when Sunshine is very staunchly a vegetarian, it conferred some of his vampiric nature upon her and she really doesn't want that, and seeing the way vampires do turns out to be annoying because she can see equally clearly in light and shadow and her brain just can't parse it properly. Con, for his part, isn't thrilled about picking up some of Sunshine's humanity [[spoiler:and is severely weakened by the rite... and then the metaphysical link forged between them saves ''his'' life. Which he feels awkward about]].

* DamselOutOfDistress: When she gets kidnapped, Sunshine calls on her on powers to not only rescue herself but also to forge a friendship with FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire Con as she rescues him too. ''In broad daylight'', which is supposed to be impossible.

* AntiHero: Constantine. He's a vampire, with all the implications of what goes with it, but he doesn't do anything particularly evil in the book. He's also made enemies of the powerful Bo, and even considers at one point drinking Sunshine's blood on learning she's a Blaise. He doesn't, for reasons he can't explain, but it takes a while for Sunshine and him to get along.

** Being a demon is more of a curse than a gift due to FantasticRacism. Sunshine mentions how a star athlete she knew lost all of his scholarships and trophies after he found out he was a demon. Also, the SOF is more likely to forcibly recruit you because it's "rotten" with partblood demons.
* Sunshine's luckier in that she's a magic handler, and magic handlers merely need a license and training by which to operate. Even so, she hates that she finds that her affinity for sunlight makes her ''really'' good at killing vampires, especially when she and Con manage to escape Bo. She gets even more annoyed when Con's healing spell allows her to see in the dark, since logically it messes up her vision with seeing through shadows in the bakery.
* BookDumb: Sunshine (true more to the spirit of the trope than the name; she's a fan of books). She may have barely graduated high school by the skin of her teeth, but she also survives ''three'' encounters with vampires.

* GoneHorriblyRight:
** Con's healing spell on Sunshine. On the one hand it heals the poisoned cut on her chest, so that she won't die horribly from the pain. On the other, he forces her to drink doe blood as part of it, possibly tainting her, and gives her the ability to see in the dark. Con also gains some of her abilities with reluctance.
** On a lighter note, sometimes Sunshine makes dishes ''too'' well, and she hates it when that happens. She remembers making a fluffy pudding with a thick fruit filling that earned the name Death of Marat; it was so popular that she got sick of making it, since it's a "brute" to make fluffy puddings with heavy fillings. A similar thing happens with cherry tarts after Charlie gets her a cherry pitter when the fruit is in season.

* MayflyDecemberRomance: Sort of. At the very least Sunshine and Con have a very strong platonic bond due to them saving each other.

* NoodleIncident: Con is capable of feats that are said to be impossible for a vampire of his age and strength -- his ability to move around in strong moonlight being the most obvious. It's implied that this is because he has rejected the darker ways of being a vampire (and in doing this he upsets the nastier sort, who don't want their underlings to get ideas), but we never get an explicit explanation.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Charlie Seddon as the owner of Charlie's and Sunshine's stepdad. He's able to calm her down when she's in a bad mood, though she can't tell him about Con not showing up, keeps as many newspaper people from her as possible.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Sunshine doesn't know what happened to her grandmother, whom she loved, after the Voodoo Wars.
* WickedStepmother: Completely averted. Sunshine loves her stepdad Charlie, and even took his last name. He gave her mom a job, and her a place in the kitchen when she was old enough to handle responsibility. Sunshine has more issues with her mother, while Charlie serves as a buffer between them.

* MayflyDecemberRomance: Sort of.

* BeyondTheImpossible: Sunshine's narration explains that successfully staking a vampire is actually very difficult and specifically requires a wooden stake, preferably of a particular type of wood, to stand any chance of being effective. Thus, when she manages to kill a vampire with an ordinary metal ''table knife'', everybody takes notice.
* TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive: Which Sunshine realizes while dealing with the giant cut on her breast and skewering a vampire with a metal table knife. If she and Con don't deal with Bo before they track her down, then she may as well say goodbye to her bakery life.

* CowardlyLion: Sunshine considers herself this; she is a "wimp" but she doesn't like bullies and rescues a girl from a vampire.

* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Sunshine. She may have barely graduated high school by the skin of her teeth, but she also survives ''three'' encounters with vampires.

* ElementalPowers: Magic-users are described as usually having a particular elemental affinity which gives them resistance to things that element opposes or neutralizes. The most common ones are (of course) fire, air, water, and earth, but metal and wood are also known possibilities. The title character's is, appropriately, sunlight, which is an unusual affinity falling somewhere between air and fire.

* ObstructiveBureaucrat: "The goddess of pain," who, ironically enough is completely correct in suspecting Con to be a vampire.

* TheQuietOne: When Constantine says things, he's definite about them. Otherwise he'd rather say nothing. You get "Yes," and "No," and not much else unless he's really excited. he also has a tendency toward BrutalHonesty; Sunshine wonders if she could teach him to say "Perhaps," or the comforting words humans say when they're worried.

* ShellShockedVeteran: Sunshine becomes this after she and Con escape from Bo. It only gets worse as she skewers a vampire with a table knife, and by the end she's convinced that [[spoiler: killing Bo has tainted her]].

* YourCheatingHeart: Sunshine has a boyfriend the entire book. Still doesn't keep her from [[spoiler: having some pretty intense moments, including something that could only count as foreplay, with Con. It doesn't go anywhere definite, and Con is pretty resistant to the idea for reasons that, as usual, he isn't interested in explaining.]]
* YouthIsWastedOnTheDumb: Trying to spot a vampire, for instance.

* MustBeInvited: Here's an interesting little wrinkle to the traditional rules, where are also in play: a vampire can't do much to a human that the human doesn't ''want'' them to do. Unfortunately, vampires have such powerful mental domination abilities that they can indeed convince a human to be eaten. (Sunshine muses a little on if this applies to [[PowerPerversionPotential other forms of invitation]]. It turns out it does, but vampires don't usually want sex with humans.)

* TerseTalker: When Constantine says things, he's definite about them. Otherwise he'd rather say nothing. You get "Yes," and "No," and not much else unless he's really excited.

* AFriendInNeed: Many

* BadassBiker: Mel

* FireForgedFriends: Or allies, at least. Because Sunshine rescues Con, he helps her escape. In this universe, that actually creates a metaphysical bond that they both have to deal with. Very awkwardly.

* FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire: Most vampires form gangs and torture humans in order to taste the fear in their blood when they finally get around to eating them. Constantine may be creepy, and has experimented with the nastier ways of being a vampire in the past, but we never see him hurt a human, and he has a several opportunities. This behavior means Constantine is both unusually powerful and independent, since he has no problems moving around (other vampires his age have become so corrupted over the years that they can't come outside ''at all'', even during the darkest nights, because the faint light from the stars is enough to harm them. They rely on their gangs to get things done). Sunshine's never heard of any others, though, so they're either very rare or very secretive.

* HypnoticEyes: You never, ''ever'' look into a vampire's eyes.
* IAmAMonster: Sunshine struggles with this through the book, first as she helps Con escape from Bo since humans do not rescue vampires, and later as [[spoiler: she gains Con's vampiric abilities and becomes tainted from killing Bo.]]
* IGaveMyWord: She worries when Constantine does not show up on time. He had said he would.

* MustBeInvited: here's an interesting little wrinkle to the traditional rules, where are also in play: a vampire can't do anything to a human that the human doesn't want them to do. Unfortunately, vampires have such powerful mental domination abilities that they can indeed convince a human to be eaten. (Sunshine muses a little on if this applies to [[PowerPerversionPotential other forms of invitation]]. It turns out it does, but vampires don't want sex with humans.)
* MyBelovedSmother: Sunshine's mother comes off as this, wanting her daughter to move back home. Sunshine describe arguments with her mother frequently.

* NoEnding: The book ends with several secondary threads LeftHanging ([[DisappearedDad the disappearance of the Blaises]], Mel's DarkAndTroubledPast, the goddess of pain, Sunshine and Constantine's [[NoRomanticResolution romance]] etc.), but the main plot points (the threat of Beauregard and Sunshine's struggle to accept magic as a part of herself) are more or less resolved. It's actually a great ending, but there's plenty of material for a [[DevelopmentHell sequel]].

* TerseTalker: When Constantine says things, he's definite about them. You get "Yes," and "No," and not much else unless he's really excited.

* CloseKnitCommunity: The coffeehouse, and its customers.

* CowardlyLion: Sunshine considers herself this; she is a "wimp" but she doesn't like bullies and rescues a girl froma vampire.

* DamselOutOfDistress: When she gets kidnapped, Sunshine calls on her on powers to not only rescue herself but also to forge a friendship with FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire Con as she rescues him too. ''In broad daylight'', which is held to be impossible.
* DarkIsEvil: The vampires

* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: Averted during the Voodoo Wars (fifteen years before the book starts) but expected to happen within a century after the book ends.

* {{Expospeak}}: Sunshine often digresses from the main plot to explain details of her world--we find out, for example, that the man who invented the test for demonic ancestry that SOF uses discovered quickly that he himself was a partblood, quit before he could be fired, and spent the rest of his life breeding roses.

* FireForgedFriends: Or allies at least. Because Sunshine rescues Con, he doesn't drink her blood and helps her get to her apartment without bleeding a trail.

* FoodAsBribe: Inverted; if you eat Sunshine's food, she becomes your friend. This is a problem with Con since he doesn't eat pastries and at best raw meat.
* FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire:
** Constantine may be creepy, and is implied to have experimented with the nastier ways of being a vampire, but we never see him hurt a human, and he has a rather good opportunity. Sunshine's never heard of any others, though, so they're either very rare or very secretive.
** Other vampires torture humans in order to taste the fear in their blood when they finally get around to eating them. Constantine's "friendliness" means that he doesn't play with his food before eating. He CAN eat deer, but whether he still sometimes eats humans as well is not revealed.
** This behavior has led Constantine to be one of the strongest vampires around, since he has no problems moving around (other vampires his age have become so corrupted over the years that they can't come outside AT ALL, even during the darkest nights, because the faint light from the stars is enough to harm them).

* IKnowYourTrueName: Vampires use name magic. Constantine laughs at the narrator for asking him his name, and later reveals it as a gesture of trust. Unlike most works, in ''Sunshine'', the name is the name--or names--you use. The narrator is as vulnerable through her nickname "Sunshine" as through her legal name ("Rae Seddon"), and more so than through her birth name ("Raven Blaise"). [[spoiler: Fortunately for Sunshine, she hasn't used "Raven" in years, and old and evil vampires can't even ''say words'' related to sunlight...]]

* JustBeforeTheEnd

* LockedOutOfTheLoop: ''Everyone'' except Sunshine knows about her family heritage. While technically she does know, it's been a very long time and she's forgotten most of it.
* MadeOfIron: Vampires are vulnerable to sunlight, but the only other known way to destroy one is to stake it through the heart. This is harder in this universe than in some others, because vampires are extremely fast and have fully-functional rib cages and breastbones protecting the heart. Also? The stake ''has got to be'' wood or wrought iron, preferably wood from an apple tree with mistletoe growing on it; try with anything else, and you're dead.

* MuggingTheMonster: Lampshaded by Con when Sunshine tells him her real name. If he had drunk her blood, as Bo had intended while they were chained side by side, he would have become powerful enough to wipe the latter out. Sunshine by herself proves to be quite a formidable threat once she and Con escapes.
* MyBelovedSmother: Sunshine's mother comes off as this, wanting her daughter to move back home.

* NeverWasThisUniverse
* NoEnding: The book ends with several secondary threads LeftHanging ([[DisappearedDad the disappearance of the Blaises]], Mel's DarkAndTroubledPast, the goddess of pain, Sunshine and Constantine's [[NoRomanticResolution romance]], etc.), but the main plot points (the threat of Beauregard and Sunshine's struggle to accept magic as a part of herself) are more or less resolved. It's actually a great ending, but there's plenty of material for a [[DevelopmentHell sequel]].

* NoodleIncident: Con is capable of feats that are said to be impossible for a vampire of his age and strength--his ability to move around in strong moonlight being the most obvious. It's implied that this is because he has rejected the darker ways of being a vampire, but we never get an explicit explanation.

* OurDemonsAreDifferent: Although we never see any full-blooded demons, we do see a few humans with demon ancestry who have things like extra teeth, horns, turn blue when they hold their breaths, and so on. SOF has some impressive technology designed to ensure that they hire only pure-blooded humans. [[spoiler:Part-bloods have varied and equally-impressive means of getting around said technology, and quite a few of them work for SOF.]]
* OurWerebeastsAreDifferent: Were-chickens, were-rats, were-skunks and others. Werewolves exist but are relatively rare. Drugs exist to suppress the Change, though they are illegal.

* ThePowerOfTheSun: Sunshine's powers

* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Favorite dish; Sunshine's specialty is "cinnamon rolls as big as your head."
* TheUnmasquedWorld

* WizardsLiveLonger: Sunshine has always thought of this trope as wish fulfillment. She learns from a retired professional magic handler that while most ordinary magic handlers won't notice much difference, those who are powerful and steep themselves in magic can live to be very old indeed. This is not a cheerful thought, given that TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt is predicted within the next century. If she continues doing what she does but doesn't do it well enough, she might live to see it.

* YourCheatingHeart: Sunshine has a boyfriend the entire book. Still doesn't keep her from [[spoiler: having some pretty intense moments, including something that could only count as foreplay, with Con.]]

* WizardsLiveLonger: Sunshine has always thought of this trope as wish fulfillment. She learns from a retired professional magic handler that while most ordinary magic handlers won't notice much difference, those who are powerful and steep themselves in magic can live to be very old indeed. This is not a cheerful thought, given that TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt is predicted within the next century.

* BeyondTheImpossible: Sunshine stakes a vampire with a table knife. An ordinary ''metal table knife'' when wood is revealed to be the best thing.

* OurWerebeastsAreDifferent: Were-chickens, were-rats, were-skunks and others. {{Werewolves}} exist but are relatively rare. Drugs exist to suppress the Change, though they are illegal.

''Sunshine'' is a novel by RobinMcKinley. It tells the story of Rae "Sunshine" Seddon, a young woman who works in her stepfather's coffeehouse as a baker. The novel is set in a [[CrapsackWorld unpleasant]] [[NeverWasThisUniverse alternate reality]] about ten years after the Voodoo Wars. These wars left the world in rather a mess--"bad spots", effectively magical toxic waste spills, get mentioned several times.